Our April Messy Church was blessed by fine weather – the first time since Christmas that everyone had arrived dry shod!

After Sue and Adele’s delicious breakfast – porridge, toast, fruit juice, tea and coffee, we all settled down to the activities which were as usual linked to the morning’s theme.

This month we focused on Matthew 9:18-26, the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the sick woman. We concentrated on the twin themes of time and healing, noting how Jesus always made time for everyone, during his healing ministry.

The activities included:  Alan’s time challenge, where one had to run and pick up a Jenga piece run back and build a tower as fast as possible, this demonstrated the pressures of time we have in our lives.

Beth had a time line from waking up to bedtime in which cards were placed at intervals to show how our days are ordered by what we do; thus reminding us to make time for God.

Mary’s marble run was the most challenging activity. We had to blow a marble through an obstacle course, which was much more difficult than it looked!  This made us think about the things that get in the way when we need to come to Jesus.

With Heather we drew around our own hands on card, wrote the names of people we know who needed Jesus’ healing touch, cut them out and decorated them to take home to remind us to pray for them.

When everyone had finished the activities, it was time for us all to gather round and the children to settle on the magic carpet and cushions to listen to the story.

The title was “Time to get up” and it was the telling of Matthew 9: 18-26 from the Storytellers’ Bible.  We performed this as a dramatic reading, which really emphasised the gratitude of the sick woman contrasting with the anguish of Jairus, whose faith was tested before his daughter was given new life… and her breakfast!

After our prayer, Alan who, we are very pleased to report, is back on form after his operation at Christmas, led us in some really energetic Worship songs.

All too soon it was time to say Goodbye to the families who joined us this month, pack away our things and go home to start preparing the next Messy Church, which will be on Saturday 12 May, 9:30am at All Saints, Killigrew Street. We hope to see you there.

Jan and the Messy Church Team